Multilayered electronic components, such as multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCC) are rapidly increasing in capacity and becoming smaller in size.
In MLCCs, a chip in which dielectric layers and electrode layers are alternately laminated is formed by alternately laminating multiple ceramic green sheets, which contain a high dielectric material, such as barium titanate, and multiple layers formed from a conductive paste containing mainly a conductive material, a binder resin and a solvent, and then drying and firing the obtained laminate. As MLCCs have increased in terms of capacity, there have been demands for an increase in the number of layers and a reduction in thickness of each layer, but this has led to a variety of production-related problems. Particular problems include insufficient film strength of electrode layers and insufficient adhesion to dielectric material sheets, which leads to the occurrence of defects and to peeling off of electrode layers from dielectric layer interfaces. In addition, as conductive materials become more finely particles dispersibility of the materials in binder resins is reduced, meaning that formed electrodes become non-uniform and obtained MLCCs readily suffer from problems such as reduced capacity and electrical short-circuits.
Therefore, consideration has been given to the use of a mixed resin, which is obtained by mixing a butyral-based resin or acrylic resin having excellent mechanical strength and adhesive properties to a green sheet with a cellulose derivative having excellent printability, as a binder resin for a conductive paste (see PTL (patent literature) 1). In addition, consideration has been given to the use of a specific solvent in addition to a publicly known cellulose-based resin or acrylic resin in a conductive paste (see PTL 2) and to the use of a specific acrylic resin and solvent in addition to a publicly known cellulose-based resin (see PTL 3).
PTL 4 also discloses the use of a mixed resin, and this patent literature discloses forming a ceramic green layer used to compensate for step-like sections in an electrode layer formed on a green sheet, and discloses the use of a mixture of a polyvinyl butyral and a cellulose ester as a binder resin in a ceramic slurry for this ceramic green layer used to compensate for step-like sections (see PTL 4).